Along came Jones

Hywel Jones is glad to see the back of 2002, and has one great wish for 2003. "I really want a quiet year and simply to get my head down and work hard," he admits. His wish is understandable, bearing in mind that last year was the most turbulent of his career so far. Admittedly, it got off to a terrific start in January 2002 when Foliage, the restaurant within the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel in London where Jones was then head chef, won a Michelin star. But a few months later, in May, he moved to take up the position of head chef at Lola's restaurant in Islington, and life then became something of a roller-coaster ride.

Jones very quickly realised the move had been a mistake, and when he heard about the head chef's vacancy at Pharmacy in London's Notting Hill in July, he immediately put himself forward. Discussions about this position progressed rapidly, with Jones ultimately resigning from Lola's in early September and taking up the Pharmacy role in mid-October. Now installed at Pharmacy for three months, he's able to reflect on why his move to Lola's did not work out and why, in contrast, he believes his latest move will.

Before going to Lola's, Jones had been working at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel for four-and-a-half years and had got used to being part of a big corporation with deep pockets and a willingness to invest heavily in its restaurants. "I was wrapped in cotton wool there and I was used to getting what I wanted - if I asked for something, I got it, no problem. David Nicholls [executive chef of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park] used to tell me sometimes that I was allowed to be precious there and that I needed to grow up, and now I can see that he was absolutely right."

The opportunity to work at Lola's appealed to him, Jones explains, because he felt it would give him the chance to prove he could stand on his own two feet without the support of Nicholls, for whom he had worked for a total of seven years. "In many ways I'd always been under the umbrella of David, so there was an element of wanting to go out on my own and show what I could do," he says.

Furthermore, Lola's owner Morfudd Richards made clear to Jones that she wanted to push her restaurant into the premier league of fine dining, to become one of the top 10 restaurants in the capital.

"I think I had a really romantic view about Lola's when I went there. I thought about what Marco [Pierre White] achieved at Harvey's and thought I could go and do the same," Jones confesses.

But the reality was very different, and Jones found the move a total culture shock. The kitchen at Lola's was less than a quarter of the size of Foliage's with far less equipment, and Jones was supported initially by a brigade of only four others in the kitchen with covers sometimes up to 80 in an evening. What's more, while Richards wanted to raise the game at her restaurant, understandably she didn't want to discourage regulars from coming, so prices were raised only marginally compared with before.

With these boundaries Jones felt frustrated and unable to demonstrate the extent of his skill in flourishes such as complimentary canape«s, amuse-bouches, petits fours and ultra-luxurious garnishes. "I had to adapt and simplify my dishes and felt that the food was nowhere near what I was capable of," he says. This was despite the fact that just a week after opening, London's Evening Standard critic Fay Maschler visited Lola's and awarded it her ultimate accolade of three stars.

"It was my fault entirely that Lola's didn't work out. I wasn't clear about what I wanted when I went there. But I soon realised that, while Morfudd wanted the restaurant to work towards a Michelin star, I wanted to push beyond this with my food," admits Jones.

What the experience did mean, though, is that when Jones went to meet James Kowszun, chief executive of Hartford Group (which owns Pharmacy), last summer, he knew exactly what he was looking for. "I wanted the right environment for me to produce food to the best of my ability without having to compromise. And I wanted control over the floor staff and a say in every detail," Jones says.

As it turned out the chemistry was spot-on between the men and, with Kowszun's goal to make Pharmacy as celebrated as it was when it launched four years ago and a flagship for his group, he agreed to everything Jones asked for. "He basically gave me carte blanche to do what I wanted."

Jones, who brought his brigade with him from Lola's - it had grown to 10 members by the time he left - already feels they are being stretched by their new environment and are producing food to be proud of. The ambition, he confides, is to win a Michelin star in January 2004 and then to work towards two stars. "I am here for the long term," he declares. "I don't want a reputation as someone who moves around a lot. My plan is to be here for at least four to five years and to build an outstanding reputation for Pharmacy's food."

Pharmacy, 150 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 5QG. Tel: 020 7221 2442

Hywel Jones - career history and culinary influences

As a youngster Hywel Jones attended catering college in his home town of Cardiff and, alongside his studies, he also got a part-time job at Le Cassoulet restaurant, where chef-proprietor Gilbert Viader was to have an enormous impact on his long-term career. "Gilbert made me realise the kind of cooking I wanted to do - serious, fine-dining cuisine," Jones says. "I remember him showing me a Pierre Koffmann cookery book and it was then I decided I had to move to London to learn more."

Jones applied for a job at the Royal Garden hotel in Kensington and ended up working there for two-and-a-half years under David Nicholls, "the biggest influence on me throughout my career and the person I still go to for advice".

It was, indeed, Nicholls who found Jones his next opportunity, working for Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico and Nico at Ninety, both in London. "Nico was a real gastronome and from him I learnt what passion for food really means," Jones says.

Sixteen months later Jones heard that Marco Pierre White was looking for a new chef de partie at Harvey's, so he began working there on his days off, ultimately moving to work full-time with White when the restaurant transferred to the Hyde Park hotel in Knightsbridge. "Every service with Marco was like an SAS operation, with everything bang-on," Jones recalls.

A brief career hiccup followed, with Jones spending a spell at a country house hotel in Gloucestershire, but "it was too much of a culture shock after working for Marco", so Jones called on Nicholls (then at the Ritz) for help. "He told me about a junior sous chef vacancy at Le Souffl‚ in London under Peter Kromberg, where I was to spend 18 months. Kromberg was a really good teacher and I particularly learnt from him on the management side," Jones says.

From working under a master in classical cuisine, Jones next moved to work for one of the most innovative chefs in London in the 1990s, Stephen Terry at Coast. "I went there as his senior sous chef for a year, which was a fantastic experience. His food was really modern and exciting and he made me look at it in an entirely new way, very much from the diner's point of view," Jones says.

Then Jones got a call from Nicholls, who was moving to work for Mandarin Oriental, which had recently acquired the Hyde Park hotel. "He told me there were plans for a signature restaurant at the hotel and he needed someone to run it, so I jumped at the opportunity. For the first two years it operated as the Park restaurant. Then we closed for five months to refurbish and opened Foliage, where I stayed for two years before moving to Lola's last May."